HERGERT: Our country is at a new crossroads

Thursday

Oct 12, 2017 at 11:26 AMOct 13, 2017 at 10:46 AM

By Leslie F. Hergert

While the current divisions in our country are distressing, I remember struggles Somerville experienced in the 1990s and how we dealt with them. I am not an objective reporter. My husband, Ralph Hergert, was the city’s director of Human Services in Mayor Mike Capuano’s administration, and a Baptist minister active with other clergy in Somerville’s Interfaith Coalition. He led many of the efforts described here, from which we can learn.

Somerville was changing from a predominantly white working class community of Irish, Italian and Portuguese immigrants and their children. More diverse newcomers were moving in: immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Southeast Asia; and young white professionals, most in low-paying service jobs and with more liberal politics than traditional Somerville.

Many “native ‘Villains” saw their city changing, feared losing the community they loved, and resented the changes. Swastikas and racist graffiti were seen on city walls, and incidents of discrimination and negative treatment were reported. In 1991, a big fight broke out in Somerville High School along racial lines. The fight was widely covered by the news media, painting Somerville as a racist city.

Somerville was at a crossroads and could have gone in different directions. After the high school fight, Mayor Mike asked Ralph to come up with a citywide response, recognizing that there was a community problem, not a school problem. Together they set up the Mayor’s Task Force on Racism and Violence. Adding the word “racism” was Ralph’s idea and a controversial one, but Mike approved it.

Ralph pulled together a group of 25-30 people from all parts of Somerville — police officers and church pastors, old-timers and newcomers, youth workers and school and government leaders, members of different ethnic communities. The group spent their first meetings discussing what was happening in the city and sharing different viewpoints; discussions were sometimes heated. But after a few months, subcommittees were organized and actions begun.

Two major activities out of the Task Force were the Count on Me Campaign and the city’s Human Rights Commission. Count on Me was a public campaign asking people to take a pledge to support their neighbors. The idea came from a subcommittee of the Task Force, but Ralph took it around the city to public rallies and organizations, where people read the pledge aloud and got buttons and bumper stickers to display. The black and white Count on Me materials, in many languages, were soon seen all over the city. Activists and nonactivists saw this as a way to take a stand against hate and make a visual statement that the city was full of good people. Alone, the Count on Me campaign might not have made much difference, but it was coupled with other activities led by diverse groups.

In 1992, the High School championship soccer team, a diverse group of immigrants and native Somervillains, chanted “We are One” before games and, in the school, modeled diverse community. The Human Rights Commission investigated discrimination complaints and also led conferences on discrimination and cultural differences. The Somerville Conversations project organized small group conversations, deliberately diverse and hosted by different groups (e.g., churches, Haitian coalition) on racism; this project went on for several years, with a different theme each year.

Throughout the 1990s, the Interfaith Coalition sponsored annual celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. These activities provided opportunities for education, problem solving and deepening connections across groups.

Today, our country is at a new crossroads, with a choice of the direction we can go. Do we want to allow or enable the voice of white supremacy to be amplified? Or do we want to embrace and benefit from the diverse voices of all people? How can we work to create the kind of country we long for, where all are valued and can succeed? Somerville’s experiences helped our community in the 1990s. What kinds of activities, beyond marching and tweeting, can help our country today?

- Leslie F. Hergert lives on Saint James Avenue, Somerville.

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